Project Management Consultant PMP, MAPM, Prince2 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/ Sun, 20 May 2012 16:35:55 +0100 Active Blog by Active 24 www.active24.com Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:42:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28449/ TPM’s financial project management excellence Projects are risky, and projects in technical areas can be difficult to get right. TPM specialises in working with corporate functions, dealing with technical areas such as tax and finance, providing assurance that large and complex projects are effectively delivered and change the business in the way they are intended.  TPM’s experience comes from a background working on tax projects and developing the project management capability of professional partnerships. The company has extensive experience of working with clients in many industry areas, in the private and public sector. Services include managing implementations - for example of new structures, processes or software; and managing transitions, such as changes of supplier. Drawing on best practice, and working alongside existing specialist advisors, TPM ensures projects are implemented successfully and benefits are realised. It focuses on making things happen, providing a robust framework for managing costs, personnel (both internal and external), and managing the quality of outcomes. TPM understands the often conflicting demands faced by executive-tier management in that it is often difficult to manage the peaks of resource demand when projects arise. Using its expertise and knowledge, TPM enables business leaders to free up in-house resources whilst at the same time achieving high-quality outcomes, within deadlines and budgets. FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 020 8144 3391 info@tpm-projects.co.uk www.tpm-projects.co.uk john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:12:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28378/ There is an excellent summary of the role of Agile within the project management professsion here; http://aspireeurope.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/agile-is-it-the-new-prince2/ Interestingly, within a day of seeing this, I find myself invited to a conference, the flyer for which claimed the... "reality of Agile as the de-facto standard for the management, development and delivery of Projects, Programmes and Products in the 21st century, across the Public and Private Sectors." This claim cannot be justified, and only serves further to devalue the role Agile actually plays in the profession. john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:28:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28314/ TPM newsletter   January 2012     Third anniversary   TPM is now approaching its third anniversary.  It is extraordinary how quickly those years have gone, and it is always interesting to reflect on what has been achieved.  Just over a year ago I was providing project management training to a group of consultants in Tblisi, Georgia.  That was an interesting assignment; see below.  The period since then has been very hectic with Doug and I almost full time applied to a major client programme, completed in December.  This was a significant implementation, the largest ‘welfare to work’ implementation in Europe.    This being the social media age I have been dragged (almost literally) into the Twitter-sphere; and set up a TPM blog to complete the transformation.  See below for full details.   TPM is moving rapidly into new service areas, which is very exciting.  Details are set out under Services Update.   New TPM blog   Click here to access the blog.  I am keen to get ideas and of course more items posted - please do let me have any feedback, together with contributions you wish to publish.  If you wish to hook up on Twitter you can find me at @johnsrowley.   Services update   Ø Training   TPM delivered project management training to a consultancy business in Tblisi, Georgia, in September 2010.  This was our first opportunity to develop a five day training programme.  A key aspect for me was that this training gave me the opportunity to develop my thinking further with regard to project management training (as well as my first experience of presenting with simultaneous translation!).     I have long held the view that all available references should be invoked; Project Management Institute, Association for Project Management, Prince2, etc.  I do not believe a training course based on the materials of one source can possibly be as powerful.  In addition to these sources, on the five day programme I was able to include international and national standards in project management (ISO, BS, etc).  I believe this enriched the material further, and look forward to the next opportunity to use these materials.   Please contact me or Doug by email or on 020 8144 3391 if you would like to hear more about the training available.   Ø Professional services   TPM prides itself on its ability to apply project management best practice to areas of business that have not traditionally focussed in this area.  Professional advisory services fall in this category.  In November 2010 I found myself presenting to a group of life actuaries in Birmingham at their national conference – very timely as the actuarial profession has been getting to grips with the challenges of ‘Solvency II’.   In addition we have working recently with businesses in the legal profession as it goes through a period of significant change.  Challenges such as those arising from the Legal Services Act, the establishment of ‘legal process outsourcing’ (LPO) businesses, and the extension of services provided in-house by corporate legal counsel, have all changed the market for legal firms.   There is much that can be done to support businesses as they confront these changes.   For an overview of services TPM can provide, please here.   More updates will follow.  In the meantime I hope you have a very happy, and prosperous, 2012.   John Rowley   January, 2012   Tax Project Management Ltd Registered in England No. 6796984 www.tpm-projects.co.uk   Tel: 020 8144 3391 If you wish to unsubscribe from future TPM updates please reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject box and we will remove your address from our mailing list.     This E-mail is confidential.  It may also be legally privileged. If you are not the addressee you may not copy, forward, disclose or use any part of it. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and all copies from your system and notify the sender immediately by return E-mail. Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be timely secure, error or virus-free. The sender does not accept liability for any errors or omissions.   john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:50:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28278/ For those of us in the project management profession there seems to be an issue regarding engaging project management (“PM”) skills in an organisation.  The hiring of PM skills may of course arise through the recruitment of a new member of staff or by engaging with a supplier organisation – so HR and Procurement professionals have a critical role here. The difficulty is that the PM profession doesn’t signal well enough the requirements for PM roles in the UK corporate environment. The UK corporate preoccupation seems to be with the Prince2 qualification.  Whenever you see a PM role advertised, or a service put to tender, the chances are you will find Prince2 specified.   For those people not in the know, Prince2 is a project management method closely aligned with the UK public sector.  It is a good PM method - it has many strengths.  But it also has the (negative) characteristic that it can be achieved by attending a 5 day training course.  Therefore many people seek a Prince2 qualification (Foundation or Practitioner) to enhance their chances of getting a PM job, and hence there is a very well developed body of training companies specialising in Prince2.  The training companies who specialise in this qualification are very keen to see as wide a take up as possible - it is good business.  But - here is the key – Prince2 is just one of many methods.  There are many methods developed by corporates that are not Prince2, but are equally valid – indeed more so when the specific requirements of a particular industry are taken into account. In fact, there is more to project management than ‘methods’.  There are professional institutes – Association for Project Management, Project Management Institute – who both promote PM best practice but also codify this in their own ‘Body of Knowledge’ and provide their own professional certifications for practitioners.  Some of these certifications are extremely difficult to obtain, and one of those organisations (the APM) is currently seeking the cherished UK chartered status. So the issue about Prince2 is that whilst it is a good method, it is ‘just’ a method, and not the only one ‘out there’ either.  In my view Prince2 does not provide us with the best way of identifying a high calibre project manager, notwithstanding that it is extremely well known and heavily promoted by many organisations.  My belief is that we need more balance in the appraisal of PM competencies and experience, and we need therefore to be more mindful of the potential information that an APM or PMI certification can tell us about a candidate/potential supplier. And HR and Procurement professionals have a key role to play in this process. [See also my Blog; ‘Worrying trends – a rant in 2010’] john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:58:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28277/ The legal profession is facing unprecedented pressures.  The combined impact of the Legal Services Act, and the challenge of providing efficiencies in service delivery through shared service and business process outsourcing (aka LPO) structures is causing ripples in the profession.  Additionally, for professional firms, there is the added challenge of dealing increasingly with in-house counsel, and seeing the scope of services, and margins, come under pressure. Magic circle firms are responding by applying significant resources to dealing with these issues.  The responses from other firms are more patchy. Through November/December 2011 TPM has been working with Lighthouse (http://www.lighthouseglobal.eu.com) in speaking to firms in the legal sector, engaging with them on how to deal with these pressures, and advising on how to act to protect both revenues and margins. john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:13:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28276/ Title: Project Management - A Skill for the Good Times?  The presentation focussed on the following areas; the relevance of project management ("PM") skills to the actuarial profession how PM skills can grow the top line as well as protecting the bottom line to professional advisers what cultural barriers exist to advisory firms, and how to overcome them how to develop the skillset and draw on best practice investment issues and considerations of timing, "is now the right time to make this investment?". Questions raised confirmed that many people in the actuarial profession are already working at developing PM skills, and Solvency II has helped add urgency to these developments.   john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:47:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28272/ In the UK market there is a prevalent PM method called Prince2. Many organisations specify this when recruiting/procuring, because it is the only certification they know. In fact it is not a PM-certification so much as a method-certification. It can be obtained in a 5 day crammer course. It is a good method, but it is not the only method out there. Its popularity says more about the feeding frenzy that has been created around it by training companies than anything else. The institutes (PMI and APM/IPMA) have been slow to respond, and are not well known by many people who are looking for project managers. I consider Prince2 has set the project management profession back 10 years in the UK. So, Prince2 is good, but it is not a suitable credential when looking for a high quality PM. It can be bought/the qualification achieved by people who are anything but proven, quality PMs. I have known many people obtain it and then not know how to use it when back in the workplace. My view is it is [only] a box to tick for experienced PMs who are starting to work with 'Prince2 organisations'. PMI/PMP is similar. When I achieved it 11 years ago it helped me understand project management and I got a lot out of it. But it is entry level. Good, but not a full professional credential. It risks being over-sold. What we need is a high level credential. One that shows you have many years experience and have achieved formal qualification demonstrating great depth of knowledge. So far as I am aware this is not offered by PMI. When I go to a doctor or a lawyer I know what I want and, by & large, those professions ensure I get it. No organisation yet provides a professional standard of that level for project management. In my view that should be available. john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:59:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28271/ TPM newsletter   May 2010     First anniversary   As TPM passed its first anniversary it has been interesting to reflect on how much we have achieved.  With project work as diverse as ever our clients have given us some very exciting challenges.  We have been introduced to clients working in new industry areas, including provision of services to DWP, as well as continuing to work with some old friends.   It has also been a pleasure for me to continue to work with Doug O’Neal, who has been a huge support on projects I have worked on for over 4 years.   Recent events  make it difficult to say what the remainder of 2010 will bring, but corporates in the UK and worldwide are undoubtedly still feeling the pinch.  Decisions about which projects to start and – more difficult this one – which projects to ditch will be crucial to some organisations’ futures.  Our services update below may help you consider some of those areas where you need to focus as the year unfolds.   I hope you enjoy this brief update.  I should very much appreciate your feedback.   New look website   TPM has updated its website, partly to recognise the increasingly diverse markets that it operates in.  Please do look at the attached link, and save it as a favourite on your browser!   http://www.tpm-projects.co.uk   As a result we have changed the email domain used in the business.  Our email addresses will change to the following, from today;   john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk   doug.oneal@tpm-projects.co.uk   Please save these addresses to your address book to avoid us coming to grief in your spam filter.   Services update   Ø Training   TPM has developed and delivered training in both project management and Microsoft Project, and is happy to deliver training in these or related areas on a bespoke or ‘off the shelf’ basis.  Please contact me or Doug by email or on 020 8144 3391 if you would like to hear more about the training available.     Ø iXBRL   An issue that is on many people’s minds at the moment is the requirement, from April 2011, to file corporation tax returns (and supporting documents) using the Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL) format.  TPM is pleased to be partnering with Arkk Solutions to provide services to clients who need to adapt their compliance processes to comply with these requirements.  If you would like to hear more about the services operated in this area please contact us.   Arkk Solutions presented their offering to the Tax Practitioners Group in March 2010.  A full report of the Tax Practitioners Group meeting can be found on the Tax Journal website, click  here.   Ø Distressed projects   A project that was misconceived for the business, or poorly designed or executed, can cause havoc to an organisation.  As well as taking up valuable resource it could lead to poor executive decision making, damage to the company’s reputation or even claims made against the company.  It is especially important at times such as these that these perils are avoided.  In some cases the right decision is to abandon the project.  This will be true where the project was based on a poor (or no!) business case.  In other cases the project may be revivable, although possibly not without major surgery.  An urgent review of problem projects cannot take place quickly enough.   This is just one of the services that TPM would be happy to discuss with you.    For an overview of other services TPM can provide, please click on the link below:   http://www.tpm-projects.co.uk/services.html   Topical issues – Programme Management Office   A hot topic for companies is whether to establish a Programme Management Office (PMO).  TPM is implementing a PMO for one of its clients as this newsletter goes to ‘print’.  We should like to hear your views on this subject, and would be grateful for your input on a (very brief) survey; please click here.     John Rowley   May, 2010   Tax Project Management Ltd Registered in England No. 6796984 www.tpm-projects.co.uk   Tel: 020 8144 3391 If you wish to unsubscribe from future TPM updates please reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject box and we will remove your address from our mailing list.     This E-mail is confidential.  It may also be legally privileged. If you are not the addressee you may not copy, forward, disclose or use any part of it. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and all copies from your system and notify the sender immediately by return E-mail. Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be timely secure, error or virus-free. The sender does not accept liability for any errors or omissions.   john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:49:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28266/ Worrying trends     A further take on the issue of professionalism in project management     There is a worrying trend in the project management world. People are inventing new methods!   It seems everywhere you turn now there is an organisation that has come up with a new approach which will solve all your problems, and avoid all of the (otherwise insurmountable) problems of 'traditional' project management.  Thank heavens!   I have a personal concern about this however.  Perhaps a minor worry, but an issue which I can't shake off.  Whether it is critical this or agile that I can't find much that is new in these methods.  In fact I am not convinced they are new methods at all.  I go to seminars, presentations, stands at conferences.  I am hungry for knowledge in these new and exciting - potentially revolutionary - approaches.  But, like the cliché about Chinese food, after the initial exciting taste, I invariably go away unsatisfied, hungry.   The fact is I think there is nothing wrong with traditional approaches to project management.  I think they work very well, and they have served me well for nearly a decade and a half.  So I am not motivated by dissatisfaction, but I am always hungry for new knowledge, new ways to improve.   And here is the problem.  At these presentations I always seem to hear criticism of traditional 'waterfall' scheduling methods, and restrictive approaches to change control (even the suggestion that traditional methods cannot cope with change at all).  And supposedly innovative ideas about estimating, resource allocation, communications, etc.,  none of which seems to be new to me.  Most worrying of all, the impression I get from some presenters is that they have not studied traditional project management at all, but merely inherited some prejudices about it.  From people who were not very good at it.   Therefore what we end up with is a group of people who do not know much about a subject, trying to sell new approaches to solve problems that aren't there.  Their attitude fails logical analysis.  If I were to say; 'Look at that person, they must be a bad driver because they have just had an accident.  Their second in a week.  The driving school that trained them has let them down.  Therefore the driving schools that we have used in the past must have let all of us down.  So we need to find a new way to learn to drive.  Please attend my seminar on "Better, safer driving.."..' you would not be convinced.  You would not buy.  So why do we get sold to in this way in the project management profession?   I used the word 'profession'.  I believe project management is a profession, and I am fully behind APM efforts to achieve charter status to help reinforce this fact.  But if we are a profession, why are we acting like a bunch of 'alternative practitioners', or allowing others in our midst to do that?  If you studied the APM body of knowledge, or the PMI BoK, and attended training courses covering this material, and if you paid close attention to your mentor in your 'apprentice' years, you will have learned a vast amount about project management.  If you studied Prince2, and/or one of the many, hugely impressive corporate methods out there, you will have learned how to turn theory to practice.  And over time you will have become a very, very good project manager, consistently delighting your stakeholders with your results.  All from traditional materials.  No alternative methods necessary.   So why have the alternative practitioners emerged?  I think part of the answer lies in confusion between methods and techniques.  It is time for me to make a confession.  I think there maybe something to Agile.  Not as a method, but as a helpful technique to employ within the application of a traditional project management method.  I will return to this issue shortly.   But first I must get something else off my chest.  For years now I, and many others, have been fighting a battle with Prince2 training providers.  And some have seen the light.  The battle has concerned;   v  Taking people onto method training without insisting on them taking project management training first (Prince2 training, if it does anything, teaches you about the Prince2 method, but not about project management).  So my recommendation is to take an APM or PMI qualification before taking Prince2, then you will have fighting chance of understanding and therefore being able to implement successfully Prince2 on your project.   v  And “why-oh-why” must we persevere with the dreadful 5-day crammer format, which allows for no explanation, no attempt at understanding, no discussion.     The result has been wave after wave of people (often public sector) attending Prince2 training and obtaining qualifications, and then returning to the office not understanding the project management skillset and failing to successfully deliver projects.  We know this. They consistently complain about it.  But the tide is turning, some trainers are alive to the issues.  So are enlightened employers.  We are finding that increasing numbers of people are adopting the combination approach of, say, APMP with Prince2, which must be good.  So why tell this tale now?  Well I think the project management profession is now dragging itself back from a difficult position over Prince2, a position that risked making it look not very professional at all.  I think it may well be that the profession needs to similarly pull itself back from difficulties with the plethora of alternative practitioners.  This does not mean rejecting them in every case.  It may mean engaging with them. But on a different level.   I return to Agile.  Where I am persuaded that Agile is onto something is in the area of creative development.  That's why its focus, its genesis, has been in software development. Techniques such as scrums and sprints, which allow for iterative development cycles, provide a solution to a problem not well handled by traditional approaches, and are valuable.  But that is the key point: they are techniques.  APM BoK should incorporate them, bring them into the mainstream.  Stop people talking about a ‘new approach‘ to project management.   I have found that if one attends Agile presentations there is a tendency for the presenter to; a) seek to style Agile as ”‘the next big thing”, and ‘traditional’ project management as woefully inadequate, and b) then  reiterate lots of project management orthodoxies seemingly not adopted by those people attracted to the Agile approach.  Such presenters may be knowledgeable and experienced project managers and, I suspect, provided an extremely valuable service to people who may have learned the 'Agile method'.  But the impression is that the Agile community have unfortunately by-passed traditional project management training, so they need to learn some project management golden rules.  A number of recent experiences have got me thinking; have we got ourselves into another 'Prince2 trap'?  Do we now have people out there saying "..traditional project management is dead, Agile [say] is the new way. All I need is some Agile training and I'll be away..".  More bad logic.  More problems being stored up for the project management profession.  Another issue to untangle.     I think there is a metaphor here with regard to the development of science.  Most scientific development is incremental in nature.  It does not throw away what went before it, but rather develops it, builds on it.  Not all scientists are Newtonian ‘paradigm-shifters’.  So it is with the project management profession.   So to conclude.  Project management is a professional activity and project managers deserve to be treated as professionals.  To achieve this they need to behave in a professional way.  And this involves;     Ø  Respecting the body of knowledge, and acting in accordance with it Ø  Contributing to its development, where necessary, and Ø  Not putting personal/commercial advantage above dedication to the profession.   If we all do these things, and help encourage others to adhere to them (say, at project management events), we will really start to look like a profession.  As we should. John Rowley   Director, TPM   John.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk   Tel: 020 8144 3391   john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Sat, 17 Dec 2011 02:17:00 +0100 http://myblog1.active24blog.com/28264/ Here is a link to a number of my articles on project management, 2000-2009; http://www.tpm-projects.co.uk/articles.html john.rowley@tpm-projects.co.uk Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:42:00 +0100